Christopher Schroeder

Category: community and culture

  • Needs a North Star

    Needs a North Star

    I’m surprised that I didn’t like Northern Lights (2023) more than I did.

    This streaming series, which is an adaptation of a play by Stephen Jones, tells the story of two grieving strangers Áine (Elva Trill) and Lloyd (Jones) who connect through their tragedies. Áine is standing in the rain on a bridge outside Lloyd’s apartment after his estranged girlfriend Denise (Jennifer Heylen) asked him to leave their home in the emotional aftermath of their newborn’s sudden death.

    This bridge is where Áine’s boyfriend Seán (Jay Duffy) jumped to his death. It’s also where Lloyd had spoken to him just before he jumped and where Denise previously had been talking to him, and where Lloyd saw them from his window when Denise lied about why she was late to dinner he had prepared.

    I typically like adapted plays perhaps because these stories seem more substantial. However, I thought this story, which might have worked as a two-hander tragicomic play, had been stretched too far across six episodes and almost 300 minutes, and past the point of ripping and tearing.

    I also was skeptical about the coincidences, especially in the Dublin setting. Greater Dublin, which is visually appealing, reportedly includes two million people across 2,500 miles. That though doesn’t prevent these characters from meeting on the same bridge at similar times.

    I additionally couldn’t overlook the representation of The Catcher in the Rye. This 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger, which also features a grieving narrator, gets its title from its narrator’s misunderstanding of a poem, which reinforces his inability to manage, or even recognize, the grief that alienates him from everyone, contributes to his emotional breakdown, and explains its mental health setting.

    In contrast, Áine and Lloyd and even Denise ostensibly confront their grief and reconnect with their loved ones. This contrast however is never acknowledged, and seems unclear, even though it could have contributed in more than one way to this story.

    These prevented me from connecting with this story, which might work on a stage somewhere but doesn’t do so on a smaller screen across six episodes for five hours.

  • Why We Work and What We Need

    Why We Work and What We Need

    Don’t retire, says oncologist, bioethicist, and Affordable Care Act advisor Zeke Emanuel in his new book. This recommendation, which is considered his most controversial, reflects the reality that jobs provide purpose, structure, and socialization, which must be replaced by those who do decide to retire or otherwise leave the workforce.

    Emanuel reportedly wrote this book as a result of his frustration with the wellness industry that he argues offers unproven, and expensive, health recommendations, such as the recent peptide craze. Emanuel instead wanted to provide a science-based, and straightforward, approach to healthy living, such as sufficient and satisfying sleep, healthy and balanced diet, and adequate physical activity.

    Emanuel isn’t wrong about the part jobs can play in preventing cognitive decline. However, he overlooks the precarity and other risks of anchoring purpose, structure, and socialization to employment for anyone, including older workers.

    Perhaps this suggestion reflects the challenge of find these elsewhere as my retirement experiences revealed. Other retirees seem to have similar challenges finding encore careers, which are often more about impact instead of income.

    Such pursuits needn’t be as elaborate as the ones at Harvard for example or Stanford where participants spend a year and $50,000-$60,000. Still, more options, or sources of structure, purpose, and socialization, need to be available for everyone, including older people.

    Otherwise, our society risks more widespread cognitive decline, especially given the numbers of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. These might feel more pressure to stay in jobs, and spending the one life they get doing something that should be a means, and never an end.

    That could actually apply to all Emanuel’s recommendations as well.

  • Some Vital Signs

    Some Vital Signs

    Chicago Public Media could be showing encouraging signs of life.

    It recently announced the release of a new website about Chicago for its residents. This space, which reportedly reflects a passion for this city and confronts its fractured communities, is based upon a central public media belief that some “civic infrastructure” cannot come from, and depend upon, the marketplace.

    This site at the moment is basic. It features slick testimonials about the city, a donation link, and a contact form link for those who want to contribute to its development.

    The most exciting element is the link to its rationale, which explains that CPM hopes to offer “trusted local information, communication knowledge, civic and cultural resources, and new opportunities for participation” from its “trusted organizations” — the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ. Like these, this new space will be driven not by profit but by the public media mission, and will consider its members not as “number[s]” but as “neighbor[s]”.

    This proposal suggests an awareness of its challenges. However, the proof obviously will be the ways these principles are converted into practices.

    The world has obviously changed, and these changes seem to be accelerating. CPM exists in a world for example where fewer people read newspapers and listen to the radio, and do these if at all online.

    At the same time, the last few years have been challenging. CPM seemed unprepared for instance to integrate the newspaper and to compensate for the predictable federal funding loss.

    Perhaps more challenging has been the inconsistency between its assertions and its actions in small and big ways. Most if not all of these efforts to confront such inconsistencies have been frustratingly ineffective and resulted in maddeningly inadequate responses if any at all.

    Public media are essential, especially in this disinformation era (McQuade 2024, e.g.). Chicago Public Media must retain the best of its previous purposes, such as providing reliable information and curating news stories, and reconfigure its contributions for a fluid future.

    That could go far in restoring my confidence in, and restoring my reduced financial contributions to, this important Chicago institution.